We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method

Publisher's Summary

In this hour, Daniel Wolff is the author of How Lincoln Learned to Read: 12 Great Americans and the Education That Made Them. He tells Anne Strainchamps that most Americans learn what they really need to know outside of school and that as a society, we believe contradictory things about the value of public education. Next, Richard Nisbett is an IQ expert. His latest book is Intelligence and How to Get It. He tells Steve Paulson that parenting styles have an enormous impact on the IQ of children and so does simply telling middle-school children that influencing their IQ is within their control. Then, Maryanne Wolf runs the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University, and is the author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. Wolf tells Anne Strainchamps that she thinks the dyslexia brain ought to be considered a gift that characterized some of history's leading figures. After that, Rick Riordan is the author of the wildly popular series of children's books featuring Percy Jackson - the dyslexic son of the god Poseidon. We hear clips from two of Percy's adventures, and Rick Riordan tells Anne Strainchamps that he created the character to help his own dyslexic son learn to love stories and reading. Finally, Lewis Buzbee has spent his life besotted with books. He's sold them, and now he writes them. His memoir is The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A memoir, A history and he's also the author of a novel called Steinbeck's Ghost for younger readers. Buzbee talks with Jim Fleming about the tactile pleasures of book shopping and why people still love going to the bookshop, despite the convenience of on-line shopping. [Broadcast Date: April 30, 2010]